Autumn / Winter Garden Calendar: August

August

Things to do in the garden:

Spray citrus against scale and plant deciduous fruit trees and berry canes.

Prune formal and informal hedges and clean up under them. Feed with a balanced fertiliser and water well.

You can start planting summer-flowering bulbs like gladiolus, spider lily, George lily, tuberose, galtonia, watsonia, schizostylis, liatris, crocosmia, eucomis and storm lily.

Prune back the following autumn- and winter-flowering shrubs as soon as they have finished flowering: poinsettia, plumbago, tecoma, hypericums, heliotropes, solanums, canary creeper, golden shower and buddleia.

Fuchsias in the garden can be given a dressing of nitrogen-rich fertiliser and those in pots can be repotted into fresh potting soil. Supply a mulch around the plants and start pinching out the growth points to encourage bushy plants with lots of flowers.

Keep all subtropical fruit well-watered and feed with a fertiliser for fruit and flowers.

Make your own garden pavers with a few basic hand tools, some timber, mortar and silicon. Watch the ‘how to’ video.

Germinate seeds early for planting out this month.

Feed acid-loving plants like azalea, gardenia and brunfelsia with a microelement mixture to correct yellowing leaves and mulch with pine needles or pine bark.

Feed spring-flowering bulbs with specialised bulb food and feed hydrangeas with specialised fertiliser for blue or pink flowers.

In temperate areas you can start sowing summer flowers to fill gaps in borders in prepared seed trays. Sow seeds of ageratum, cosmos, lobularia, cleomes, godetias, lavateras, marigolds, phlox and nicotiana. Keep the soil just moist until germination and the seed boxes protected from cold by covering them with clear plastic.

Sow artichokes (Globe), bush beans, climbing beans, beetroot, brinjals, cabbages, carrots, celery, chillies, cucumbers, sweet peppers, lettuce, melons (sweet and watermelon), peas, potatoes, pumpkin, radishes, rhubarb, spinach (Swiss chard), squashes and tomatoes.